This is a public server. Anyone may play on it, though you must first talk to an operator and get added to the whitelist. In general, anyone is allowed to play after introducing themselves to the operators and community. Note, however, that all players are expected to follow the server rules, and failure to do so may result in access to the server being revoked.

This Minecraft server runs on a VPS dedicated to the task. This costs more to operate, however, and your help is kindly requested. If you play on this server and enjoy it, please consider donating a few dollars to help pay for the server. Details and the donation page here. Thank you in advance!

CraftBukkit 1.9 is currently being beta tested, and this server will be updated to Minecraft 1.9 when we consider CraftBukkit 1.9 to be stable and fully compatible with the server and plugins. Established players already approved for s2 can play on the s2-based LizardNet Beta Server, s2.5, to help us test the CraftBukkit 1.9 development releases.

The Central Player Village (CPV). Spawn is near the circle of trees in the center right of the image.

Rules

Please be civil to others and maintain a level of etiquette on the server.

Build your houses away from the initial spawn area. Mark off your above-ground claims with fences and signs. Use torches and signs below ground to stake off your claims.

Please be mindful of incomplete claims. If you see a partially built fence signs or signs without torches, assume that the area has been claimed and move on. Remember to keep extra distance between your own claims and others' claims, especially others' incomplete claims. Please try to "complete" your claim as soon as possible.

Do not encroach into others' claims. Do not enter other players' claims or homes without permission of the owner(s). If you see an underground area with torches you didn't place or above-ground areas with fencing you didn't place, it's probably not your claim!

Fast Travel destinations marked as "(Interior)" will lead to the interior of someone's house; they should not be used without the house owner's permission!

Likewise, you may expand your own claims as long as it doesn't encroach on someone else's.

If you would like to build in or near the Central Player Village, decide on a claim but seek approval from an operator before building. They will tell you if the area you are building in will encroach on someone else's property and that sort of thing, as well as which direction you should build in.

Please do not touch NPCs or their villages. Uninhabited structures, however, may be touched.

No spawning items or cheating. Exceptions include operators, who may at times enter creative mode to, for example, maintain the Fast Travel network.

No griefing of any sort (such as building portals over lava, stealing items from other players' chests, etc.). This includes deliberately teleporting people against their will using the Fast Travel Network!

No vandalizing the landscape. This includes - but is not limited to - the following rules:

Replant all trees cut down in unclaimed areas (especially Forest biomes); only clear-cut in your own claimed land.

Please go to a desert if you plan to fight a Wither. Far, far, far away from any player-built structures.

No blowing up large swaths of land using TNT. Creeper explosions are fine, assuming that you aren't deliberately using the creepers to destroy large swaths of land.

Remember, in general, "vandalizing the landscape" rules only apply to areas that are not claimed by you.

Please carry a wooden button with you at all times, at least one, if you plan to use the Fast Travel Network. Although the command blocks that make up the network core are protected by bedrock, the wooden buttons that activate teleports and signs that mark them (as well as torches) can still be destroyed. To prevent yourself from being trapped at a remote Fast Travel station, please carry at least one wooden button with you at all times so you can replace a broken one. This goes double for the Nether!

If you are banned from the server, you may appeal the ban and request unbanning using this Google Docs form, unless the ban reason is preceeded by "NO APPEAL".

If you wish to report abuse from another player or another player directly violating the rules, please visit this Google Docs form, taking care to read the instructions before submitting a report!

Bans, especially those for griefing, may be pushed globally through MCBans. In this case, you may contest this ban in two locations, through MCBans to rescind the global ban, and here on LizardNet to rescind the local ban. You can check the s2 banlist, and whether bans are global or local, by going here. Note that if a global ban is not contested within 60 days of it being set, it may not be contested through MCBans and can only be contested through LizardNet. Again, the LizardNet ban contest form can be found here.

Sleep Polling

These aren't rules per se, but do represent a standard and accepted practice on the server that we'd all appreciate if everyone followed!

When it's nighttime on the server, sometimes users wish to sleep. The first user that wishes to sleep simply calls out "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" in the server chat. Following this, polling begins:

Any user that also wishes to sleep (or is able to sleep/reach their bed and doesn't mind) also calls out "zzzzzzzzzz" or similar in chat.

Any user that can't sleep but doesn't mind that others sleep calls out "Can't sleep, but will relog" or similar

Any user that can't sleep and doesn't want to advance the system clock for some reason (e.g., mob hunting) should make this known and negotiate with other users

Once all users have been polled in this manner, if it is decided that sleep will occur, all users who aren't sleeping disconnect for about 30 seconds so sleeping users can sleep and advance the system clock.

New Player District

There is a special area of the Central Player Village (CPV) that is reserved for new players - the New Player District, or NPD. Here is everything you need to know about the New Player District, including the special rules that apply to the NPD only:

Players may begin living in ("check-in" to) one NPD house at any time during the 30 days following their first server login.

Note that the 30 days begins when a player logs in to the server for the first time, not when they are whitelisted.

Vacant houses are noted by a sign reading (Unoccupied) near the door. To check-in, break the sign and replace it in the exact same spot, entering your full Minecraft username as the text (split into multiple lines if necessary)

Players may live in the NPD for a maximum of 30 continuous days following check-in (regardless of your age on the server). After this time, players are expected to have built a house in a claim of their own, or to have arranged alternative living space (for example, with another player's private guesthouse).

Players can check-out at any time by removing the sign with their name on it (which they placed during check-in), and replacing it in the same spot with the text (Unoccupied).

When checking out, ensure that all chests and furnaces in the house are empty. Anything left behind will be destroyed by an operator.

Note that once a player has checked out, they cannot return to live in the NPD ever again, even if they are still less than 30 days old. Use your time in the NPD wisely!

If you haven't checked-out of your NPD house within a few days of the 30-day habitation limit, you may be evicted by a server operator. This involves destroying everything in the house's chests and furnace, and returning the house to an "Unoccupied" state. For all other purposes, an evicted player will be considered to have checked themselves out of their house.

Aside from the sign used to check-in and check-out, players may not (and cannot) alter anything in the NPD, including placing or removing blocks, torches, flora, etc.

Likewise, remember that you cannot take the bed, furnace, or crafting table with you from your NPD house!

Players within the NPD fence are invincible. Monsters cannot spawn within the NPD, and monsters cannot do any damage to anything in the NPD should they get in. Note that hunger is still enabled within the NPD, so being in the NPD will not stop you from growing hungry and eventually starving!

Players may not enter NPD houses that they are not checked-in to.

(Server operators conducting official business are exempted.)

The New Player District is conveniently located just west of the Fast Travel Hub and CPV train station. From the world spawn, you should be able to see a sign labelled "New Player District" with an arrow that will guide you to the NPD. (If you don't see the sign, look in the general area you spawn in.)

Players, new and experienced, may be tempted to use the NPD area as a quick and easy escape from mob attacks. There's nothing wrong with this, and is explicitly allowed. There are, after all, other places on the server where players are invincible (like the Spleef arenas). However, using a NPD house that you are not checked-in to, even if it's just to sleep in the bed, is against the server rules, and may result in disciplinary action.

Overhead view of the NPD

Interior of a NPD house

View of the Fast Travel Hub, just east of the NPD

Operator-Assisted Repairs

Currently, Survival Minecraft prevents players from performing any repairs with an anvil that cost more than 35 XP levels. While there are hopes that this will be fixed in 1.8 (and if not, we may write a mod that fixes this), until then, you should contact an operator, who will enter Creative mode to check the cost of the repair, deduct the appropriate number of levels from you through use of the /xp command, then perform the repair after you give them the item to be repaired and the item to be repaired with. They will then return to you your repaired item and return to Survival mode.

If you are yourself an operator, simply perform the same steps, except you should use the /xp command to deduct the appropriate number of levels from yourself, of course.

Rail Transit Network

Map of the public rails. Click to enlarge on LizardWiki, or click here to view it on Google Docs.

A map of the rail transit network public tracks is to the right. You must provide your own minecarts.

Always remove your minecarts from the tracks when you are finished with your trip.

Only attempt to remove minecarts with bare hands or swords. Using tools may cause damage to the track. The minecart should shake when it's hit; if not, this is probably due to the entity positioning bug - try disconnecting and reconnecting.

To avoid problems with traffic jams, please ensure at least 30 seconds between individuals proceeding on the rail.

Important Features

Fast Travel Network - Powered by Command Blocks encased in bedrock, the Fast Travel Network (commonly abbreviated FTN) allows players to traverse large distances in the blink of an eye. Use of the FTN is voluntary; if you'd prefer not to use it (as some of our players do), you don't have to! Alternative modes of easy transportation are provided: Excluding horses, a rail network is being constructed for points near spawn, and safe(er) Nether tunnels have been built for points far. It should be noted that the FTN is not a personal warping or teleport system - only server operators can create Fast Travel Stations and destinations, and they'll only be created for players if the player requesting a Fast Travel Station has already been to the target area. Furthermore, you must find a Fast Travel Station or be at the Fast Travel Hub near spawn to use the system - unless you're close enough to hit the button, the FTN won't save you from impending doom! The FTN is intended for convenience and to reduce tedium; for example, if you built your house far away from spawn, you might have a Fast Travel Station in your house that takes you back to spawn, and another station in the Fast Travel Hub to take you back to your house.

Death chests - Primarily to combat the five-minute despawn of a player's items after he or she dies, and secondarily to combat the ragequit-inducing fury of dieing in lava and watching your items vaporize, s2 uses the DeadMansChest plugin to collect a player's items into a chest when they die. You do not need to have chests in your inventory for this to happen. A (non-mine-able) glowstone tower will also appear above the death chest to act as a beacon. However, the death chests won't do everything for you; you still have to find your chest, and if you died in deep water (or worse, deep lava), prepare to go for a swim!

XPKeeper - On a similar note, this server uses the XPKeeper plugin. XPKeeper provides a vault of sorts in the form of a sign, from which you can deposit and withdraw XP. This means no more worrying about trying to get your next great enchant, then subsequently losing all 50 of your hard-earned XP levels to a passing skeleton. XPKeeper simply allows one to take their XP and store it somewhere safe, but any XP you are carrying with you when you die is still mostly lost. XPKeeper, like the death chests, is intended as a convenience, not a game changer - you are only allowed one XPKeeper sign in the entire world, and you must be able to touch the sign to perform any transactions - without holding any items in your hand, left-clicking the sign deposits all XP you're carrying, right-clicking withdraws enough XP to give you five additional XP levels, and holding shift while right-clicking withdraws all your XP. Additionally, the contents of your XPKeeper sign are safe from griefers - only you can perform transactions on your own XPKeeper sign. For advanced uses, see the plugin's documentation on BukkitDev.

Spleef - Though not a primary "objective" if you will, three spleef arenas - automated by way of the DolphinSpleef CraftBukkit plugin - are available for s2 players to play in. If you aren't familiar with Spleef, read about it on the Minecraft Wiki. Each of s2's three (currently) spleef arenas has unique characteristics and playstyles. For more information, and how to use the Spleef arenas once you're whitelisted on the server, please visit this page.

Teamspeak 3 server - LizardNet runs a Teamspeak 3 server, and when you are whitelisted on this server, you gain access to the private Teamspeak channel dedicated to the server. Instructions for gaining access to the channel will be included in your welcome email when you are approved to the whitelist!

Minigame Servers - All players whitelisted on s2 are automatically whitelisted on the LizardNet Minecraft Minigame servers. Currently, this is only server m1, Missile Wars.

Other Information

Saddles for your horses and pigs can be found the normal way (from villagers, found in dungeons, etc.), but also can be purchased from an automated vending machine located on the lower floor of the Fast Travel Hub (opposite wall from the stairs leading to the lower floor). Currently, the cost of one saddle is 35 enchantment points (experience levels).

Deaths are tabulated as a scoreboard objective; that is, the number of times a player has died will show as a yellow number in the player list (when holding <Tab> on your keyboard) as well as under player nametags if you're close enough.

Since dying and losing 30 XP levels is annoying, the XPKeeper plugin is enabled to allow you to save XP, chest-style. You will, however, have to learn how to use it; see here for usage instructions.

DeadMansChest is enabled; this means that when a player dies a chest with their items will drop instead of the items themselves. Players do not need to have chests in their inventory for this to happen!

This server has fully-automated spleef arenas for all to use; please see here for more information.

A relay is set up between the Minecraft server's chat and the LizardIRC chat channel #lizardirc. IRC messages in Minecraft will be prefixed with [IRC], IRC users will be prefixed with [IRC] in the <Tab> players list in Minecraft, and in IRC, Minecraft chat messages all come from the user MC-S2-ChatRelay. From IRC, the .players command can be used to get the list of players currently on Minecraft.

Short for Universally unique identifier, a unique UUID is assigned to each Minecraft player account. The UUID for an account always remains the same, even after a username change.

Sign Filtering

S2's web map generator now supports sign filtering - not all signs will be automatically shown in the web map, so players can have private/hidden signs. Certain signs will still be automatically shown on the map, however any sign can be explicitly marked as shown or hidden on the web maps. This is the algorithm used, with rules listed in order of precedence:

If first character on sign is @, sign is explicitly public and will always be shown on web map.

If first character on sign is #, sign is explicitly private and will never be shown on web map.

If sign contains the words/phrases "home", "house", "claim", "outpost", "deathpile", and/or "fast travel" (case insensitive), sign is assumed to be public (for the regular expression used for matching this rule, see source code below).

All other signs are assumed private.

Notes:

"First character" in the rules above can occur on any line; for example, if you want to make your sign public but the only text is on the third line of the sign, you can put the @ at the start of the third line - provided that the first two lines of the sign are completely blank (including free of whitespace).

Since "deathpile" is on the assumed public list, death chest signs will still be shown on the map.

Here is the exact source code for the Overviewer POI filter function used to create the sign POIs on the web map:

Information regarding operator-specific procedures and such can be found on the /Operator procedures subpage.

Donors

This server, s2, runs on a dedicated VPS, and is thus donor-supported

People who have donated to LizardNet Minecraft have green nametags in chat (unless they are also an operator on the server, in which case their operator status takes precedence and they will still have a red nametag). For more information on donations, including how to donate and how long you'll get your green nametag for, please visit Minecraft servers/Donations.

Thank you donors for your support!

Minecraft username

Donation Type

Has so far donated (in USD, after all fees)

Has so far paid for this many server hours

TLUL

Recurring: Monthly Redstone

$276.29

7957.99 hours

FlightTime1969

Non-recurring

$62.21

1791.66 hours

TheMesquito

Non-recurring

$19.12

550.66 hours

L235

Non-recurring

$4.55

131.04 hours

mellowcraze

Non-recurring

$23.97

690.34 hours

Disclosures

TLUL is a server operator on s2, but was long before he began donating